How evil will fall

Every day we’re asking four questions about part of the Bible. Today Bern Leckie answers:

What did I like about today’s passage?

Nahum is a challenging read – it is about the judgement of God. Nahum is the follow-on from Jonah, where God sent Jonah to Nineveh to encourage the people to repent. They repent, turning from their violence and evil, but the repentance is short-lived as we see in Nahum.

God has allowed a foreign nation to rule over Israel in judgment for their unfaithfulness. Whilst God did want Israel disciplined, Assyria is violent and evil in their treatment of the Jews, and so God brings well-deserved judgement on them for that, as well as for being a godless and idolatrous nation.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God is a God who judges sin and despises the violent, the greedy, the lustful. Yet He has been “slow to anger” – His dealings with the Assyrians (see Jonah) show He has been longsuffering and patient with them, but when they quickly return to their sinful ways, God brings judgement on them and the Assyrian Empire falls from power. It’s not nice, and it’s uncomfortable to read. But that doesn’t mean it’s not an important concept to grapple with.

God calls us to be holy for He is holy. The sin in our lives rightfully needs to be dealt with if we want to be in a flourishing relationship with a holy and righteous God. We must get rid of the sin in our lives, but in partnership with a loving and gracious Father. Thankfully, the death and resurrection of Jesus deals with the necessary judgement and punishment of my sin.

We also see that God is a jealous God. We think of jealousy as a negative thing, but if God describes Himself that way then it must be a positive. I think it’s about God wanting our full devotion, our complete faithfulness and devotion to Him, which is vastly different from the sinful, human jealousy or envy we might have. God is jealous of the things that take His place in my heart and to me, that feels like the right kind of jealousy!

God knows our tendency is to put things before Him, which is why He talks about this in His covenant with the Israelites. His jealousy is first seen in the 10 Commandments and is given as the reason that we need to turn away from idolatry and put Him first.

God is jealous because the people gave their affection, worship, attention, and hearts to pagan gods, often idols made of metal or wood. Does that sound right to you?! Worshipping an unimpressive block of wood?! It sounds ridiculous but we do the same with our modern idols – prioritising other people (our spouse, our children, our friendships) and other things (career, sex, marriage, money, possessions) before God.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

I want to ask God what I most often put before Him, what rivals Him for my affection and how I can prioritise Him above all else.

Who am I going to share this with?

My husband.